Music! Music! Music!

Did you see the news item about the family that posted a video of their baby dancing to a Prince song playing on the radio? Both Prince and the music company dropped a bomb on them for “stealing” his music. I believe it was finally settled in the family’s favor, but who knows what it cost them to get their life back.

We all know background music can add immeasurable value to a multimedia production. Even a simple slideshow takes on a new dimension when there is an appropriate background music adding to the experience. As the story above shows, commercial music is not a good option for your project. You need to stick to royalty-free music. Some applications – like Photoshop Elements, iLife and some scrapbooking software – each include a small collection of music clips, but they get old quickly. What you need are affordable royalty-free music loops. As more and more “regular people” become YouTube moguls, the market for this kind of music is growing too. Here are some affordable resources for background music. Each has various levels of restrictions and requirements in their licensing terms. Make sure you read these before you purchase.

Melody Loops has a huge collection at great prices. Individual loops are $6.99, but if you buy multiple loops in a single purchase, the quantity discount makes it even cheaper. Loops vary in length and some work better than others as repeaters (to provide continuous play over and over throughout your production). You can listen to the complete loop in the on-site player, but there will be an occasional beep to discourage recording.

Partners in Rhyme offers both music and sound effects and there is a section of free royalty-free loops too. Most of their offerings are sold as collections rather than individual tracks.

musicloops.com isn’t cheap, but there’s a large inventory of high-quality tracks. In the Christmas section there are actual recognizable songs.